The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-14
A NEW BUSINESS FOR WOMEN.
Miss Corson on Training ,chool for
Servants.
Copyrighted 1851

Copyrighted 1887
New YORK, Nov. 12.-There is a new
business for women which is just gaining
of domestic servants.
She of the kitchen has so far repented of
her deficiencies or become so far aware Of
the better pay and better household positions
to be secured by remedying them, that it
has become an occupation which already
supports number of capable women of
some executive ability to go about from
house to house, and in the kitchens of the
mlstreses or in the girls homes, or in rooms
especially fitted up for that purpose, to give
practical lessons in cookery and other house
hold arts.
Girls who have not come under this form
of instruction, in cases where they can raise
the money to pay for it, are beginning to
go to the hotel chefs and pick up culinary
wrinkles, at so much the wrinkle, from
them. There is no doubt that a certain
proportion of the more intelligent of the
kitchen queens have thoroughly walked up
to the fact that better order of domestic
service is called for and will be paid for if
obtained.
called upon Miss Juliet Corson, the
pioneer of the cooking schools, in her
rooms at the Continental Hotel, yesterday,
to inquire into the truth of the report of
training school for servants on a large
scale to be established in New York under
her charge and under the auspices of Secre-
tary Whitneys wife. Miss Corson is not in
good health and has many ingenious con-
trivances for carrying on her literary work
without rising from the couch on which she
spends much of her time.
st is not true" she said, "that
any definite arrangements have
been made, or that Mrs. Whit
ney has been in communication with
me at all upon the subject. / do not know
of anything definite enough to be called
plan on foot in the city At the same time
things are ripe for just such a project, if
money enough could be raised to start it on
such a scale as to give it any real influence
in the city, and if the thing were in the
hands of responsible people practical enough
to know just what to do"
''If such school were established" /
asked, t.does your experience lead you to be-
lieve that the right kind of girls would go
into it! Is not the position OF domestic
servant held in such disrepute that it would
he hard to find the intelligent and self-re
specting girl vino ought to have charge of
the domestic economy of the kitchen, who
would care to fit herself for any such place
as a profesSouW
THAT trouble would have been felt few
years ago. Miss Corson said land has
interfered with some attempts of the sort,
but things are beginning to be different now.
Anarchy in the kitchen has produced such
q weeping and waling throughout the land
that it has penetrated the ears of servant
dom. and the girls themselves know that it
is to the interest of their pocketbooks to do
better"
"Would American girls go into a training
school for servants" | asked
mot many, probably. Some would be
glad of a chance to fit themselves for posi-
lions as supervising or working housekeep-
ers, places which pay better than many
things which well educated and intelligent
women do"
ut would surprise you to know" Miss
Corson went on chow many girls there are
who are only waiting for a chance to be
taught. have me across numbers of
them who are ready 70 give their time and
their money to learn how to perform their
duties better, not from any pricking OF
conscience, but because they know it would
pay them in the end. The constant agita-
ton of the subject has produced that much
effect at least"
The domestic problem is a perplexing one,
and there have been divers attempts at a
solution in New York. Several attempts at
systematic training of servants have been
made, one of the most notable dating from
1873. when a cooking-school and industrial
training establishment-the outgrowth of
the financial panic which drove many
women to depend ON themselves for bread
and butter-was established and did good
work for some time. A similar institution
was opened in 1873 but fell through largely
because many of the girls admitted were too
Young to take positions in families. The
Industrial Education Association, in which
Mss Grace II. Dodge, the School Commits
sioner. is so largely Interested, has cooking
classes. of which Miss Alice Burns Is Princi-
pal, but the pupils are for the most part
school children, and the same is the case
with the New York Cooking School in
LAFAYETTE place A start has been made by
the Board of Education toward introducing
cooking as study in the girls grammar